by Carlo Zen
Considering the delicate nature of the cooperation between the Commonwealth and the Federation…there was a lot of pressure on Drake, as a commander.
There was no way he could accept her plea.
Every time he received one of these insistent petitions, he could only turn it down.
“But—”
“Sorry, there’s nothing I can say.”
“…”
Just as an unpleasant silence was about to fall…
“Excuse me, Colonel Drake. May I say something?”
A gentle soprano voice dispelled the awkwardness.
“Sure, Officer Liliya, if you have an opinion, then by all means.”
“Isn’t it only natural to have feelings about your fatherland, about your hometown?”
“Of course.”
“Then I should think it’s only human to wish for home as your final resting place.”
Drake was about to say that she was right, and his eyes widened.
“If you like, I can arrange for a cenotaph as a temporary resting place. And then once the Entente Alliance is freed, they could go home.”
“…That would be much appreciated.”
If the Federation was offering…
That certainly justified it.
At least, it didn’t cross the line set by the home country. Well, no, Habergram will probably throw a fit.
But he was already prepared for that, since they failed to protect the RMS Queen of Anjou.
Perhaps being the one responsible was a tough gig, but…he had no reason to feel ashamed for humbling himself to benefit his subordinates.
“Okay, is that it? I should probably be going. Officer Liliya, please let me know if my troops give you too much trouble.”
As Drake saluted and took his leave, his head was already filling up with procedures and requirements. If temporary interment could be arranged, then all he needed was authorization from home.
I can probably get it through if I push as not Commonwealth military but as a voluntary army from the Unified States. No, I will get this through.
Seeing Colonel Drake fairly stomp off like that, I felt like I had made a mistake. I kept bringing up the same thing over and over again.
I nearly gave up when I saw how he was suppressing his irritation at my request.
…I don’t think I said anything wrong.
But I do understand that my request made trouble for him.
Then I remembered what happened and hurried to thank the person who threw me a lifeline.
“Um, Officer Liliya?”
“Can I call you Mary?”
“Of course.”
She’s Colonel Drake’s counterpart on the Federation side and a political officer.
“Thanks. Please call me Liliya, too. You don’t need to use the title. If possible, I’d like us to be friends.” Then she added, “Oh, and I’ve heard about you—about the people resisting even though the Entente Alliance was occupied by the Empire. It’s an honor to meet you.”
She seemed so kind, I had to go and ask, “You don’t have a grudge against us?”
“A grudge…? Why would I?”
Liliya looked perplexed. Really, I shouldn’t have asked. But my mouth did it all on its own. “We’re the ones who started the whole war. The ones who caused the problem. Or—oh yeah—I heard people call our fatherland ‘the bankrupt relative.’”
I borderline self-deprecatingly murmured the truth.
Everyone fighting the Empire whispered it. We could have avoided this meaningless war if only the Entente Alliance hadn’t been so careless.
Sadly—I sighed a little in my head—I’m already used to being talked about behind my back.
“…Well, I can’t deny that it was the Entente Alliance’s cross-border operation that set things in motion. History will probably speak of it as the event that triggered this huge war.”
Which was why when Liliya nodded her understanding, I braced myself like usual. I was sure she’d criticize us, reproach us, say it was our fault.
“You gave them an excuse, there’s no doubt about that. But that’s all.”
“…That’s all?”
I didn’t understand, because I couldn’t believe that was true. But when she smiled and said yes, I was so in awe, I couldn’t even look straight at her.
“Enemies approaching the border get driven back. So, well…when it comes to your Entente Alliance Army…”
“Yes, I know. We crossed the border, so it was our fault. It’s okay.”
Liliya nodded slightly and replied, “But what the Empire did after that went beyond merely protecting its border. It should have been a small border conflict, but the Empire began a major mobilization. Don’t you find that strange?”
“Wait, but from the military’s perspective, isn’t mobilization a natural response? I mean, look at the scale of this war. I can understand why they would call for a general mobilization.”
“Yes, perhaps it was—if the Empire was envisioning a war on this scale from the very beginning.”
“…?”
I didn’t even have time to ask what she meant before she gave me an explanation.
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but if the Empire just wanted to deal a blow to the Entente Alliance—this might sound strange, but…there was no reason to mobilize their entire army.”
When I gasped, Liliya gave me a little nod. What she said next completely shocked me.
“And on top of that, they carried out this large-scale mobilization and advanced north. But then what happened when the Republic hit the western industrial district on the Empire’s flank? As the whole world knows, the Empire reacted with surprising flexibility to stop them—despite the fact that the main imperial forces were all deployed up north.”
“That’s…”
“An army can’t free itself from its initial plan.”
She made the statement quietly but with so much conviction. It was something that every soldier knew.
You couldn’t move an army on a whim. Even with advance prep and careful arrangements, the army was a prisoner of uncertainty.
So then why was the Empire able to hold the western front despite the unforeseen attack?
“If they hadn’t been prepared for it, there would have been no way… When I heard this in Moskva, it made sense to me. The Empire was using the Entente Alliance from the start.”
I never thought of that. But now that she mentioned it…I was able to accept it as a new viewpoint.
Still, there was something that made me think, But… If what Liliya was saying was true… I gulped and asked, hardly thinking, “You mean our government was tricked?”
“I don’t know. But from what I heard, there’s a possibility that intentional provocation was involved.”
“So the Empire made them believe it wouldn’t respond to a cross-border operation?”
“It’s all just a guess.”
Yes, it’s all just a guess. At that point, I tried to keep a cool head. There was no way to know what the Entente Alliance government had been thinking at the time.
It was all speculation.
It was just a hypothesis with no proof, mixed with the hope that it was true. But could it be that my father and all my friends had to die for that?
“Yeah, you might be right, Liliya. Or you might be wrong. But it’s important to look at things from different perspectives.”
“Yes, it’s good to have lots of points of view.”
“Thanks. Regardless of whether I believe it or not…you’re the first person who hasn’t treated me like a troublemaker.”
What was even more important was that…I hadn’t been rejected. Of course, everyone welcomed us warmly. But the tone of their comments put us on edge: Do they think of us as a nuisance?
It was something I hadn’t felt at Grandma’s house…this malice.
As the war escalated and the number of casualties increased, I had started to feel it in the Commonwealth.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, so if any of my Federation comrades says something… No, if anyone says something, let me know. That’s part of what I’m here for.”
“Thanks. I think you’re the first person I can talk to.”
“What? Mary, what about Colonel Drake? He seems like a good guy. I’m sure he would at least listen to you.”
“Yes, but…he’s a Commonwealth soldier to the core. I mean, he is considerate. But I think he’d be lying if he said that he doesn’t think this a mess the Entente Alliance made.”
I imagine both of us felt it—that wall between us due to our disparate loyalties.
Colonel Drake was fighting for his fatherland, and I was fighting for mine. When two people are fighting for different fatherlands, there is bound to be some disconnect. It’s sad but true.
“…I guess I never did this before.”
“Never did what?”
“I don’t think I ever talked about this sort of thing to someone from a different country.”
Until I met Liliya, I could only share my worries with the other members of the voluntary army… And now, most of my fellow soldiers had fallen.
It’s the duty of those who remain to free the fatherland my father and those men and women believed in. But… I wiped away the tears that were about to fall and smiled. “Ah, I guess I’m relieved to find that this kind of conversation isn’t impossible.”
“I wish you great fortune in life, Mary. There will be hard times, but there will be good things, too. Life is long.”
“It’s weird, huh? But yeah, I guess that’s one way to put it.”
“That it is, my friend.”
She beamed a rosy smile at me.
It was a wonderful smile.
“Oh, I like that—that phrase.”
Her smile was so bright, I could hardly look at her I felt so overwhelmed.
“Then, once again, it was nice to meet you, Mary.”
I took the hand she offered.
It was warm and kind.
That’s why I could smile, too.
“Yeah, same here. Thanks, Liliya. My friend.”
Nice to meet you, my friend.
OCTOBER 16, UNIFIED YEAR 1926, THE NORTHEASTERN PART OF THE EASTERN FRONT, THE SALAMANDER KAMPFGRUPPE GARRISON
The mood of the commander of the Salamander Kampfgruppe in the east, Lieutenant Colonel Tanya von Degurechaff, is plummeting like the pressure in a hurricane.
Partly because she’s still on a research and investigation mission to test Kampfgruppe operations—they’ve been assigned to a part of the front line far removed from the main fighting area.
While the main forces gather in the southeast and prepare for a major operation, the Salamanders have been told to get some experience surviving the winter in the northeast, which is considerate. You could say that a flank patrol mission that can double as training is a thoughtful arrangement.
But if you can be thoughtful about that, then… The hand she’s been dealt has Tanya mournful to the last and at her wit’s end.
“…Wars shouldn’t be dragged out. We’re going to use up all our precious veterans. Do they really think this ragtag crew is going to be able to hold the front?”
The units she’s received are even greener than expected.
“The majority are new recruits, not career soldiers. It’s too much for the scarce veterans we do have to handle… Agh, what a headache.”
Having said that much, she realizes she’s talking rather irresponsibly, but she can’t lie about how she feels. She really is despairing at the cards in her hand.
Lieutenant Colonel Uger from the Service Corps was telling the truth when he said the core personnel would be veterans. He did indeed get us veterans.
If you have a reliable former classmate from the war college on your side, things get a lot easier.
Still, even Uger is…just a single staff officer. He’s not in a position to orchestrate everything. It was good that he secured us some veterans… It’s just too bad he couldn’t have seen to the quality of the new recruits as well.
Tanya overestimated the amount of training they would have, and she can’t regret it enough.
Though they’re training in parallel with position prep—mainly the village in which they’re garrisoned for winter—it’s impossible to expect good results.
They don’t just need proper battlefield conduct drilled into them—they don’t even have a solid grasp of the most basic education a soldier needs on the front line.
It’s like tossing a new sales team member onto the front lines when they don’t even know about the company’s products yet. Setting aside the fact that you’re trying to fill employee openings, it’s bound to cause confusion.
Furthermore, the newbies aren’t even the only problem. The officers we’ve been allotted are also far from ideal.
We requisitioned part of a building that must have been a Federation Communist Party facility for HQ. When I had my reliable officers war against the new officers, albeit on a map, the results were dreadful.
No, some of them deserve praise. It’s just that there are a lot more inepts.
Even if I evaluated with the most indirect phrasing and was as optimistic and hopeful as I could be, they still aren’t skilled enough for me to be able to trust them as officers.
And those are my subordinates.
Sitting with Major Weiss commenting on the newbies’ performances in the HQ common room, it ends up about 10 percent praise and 90 percent criticism.
“Captain Ahrens was the best of the lot. As the commander of an armored unit, he knows his stuff. His naïveté when it came to using artillery and mage units is acceptable because it’s not his area of expertise.”
“Yes, he’ll be no problem. I heard it was Colonel von Lergen who got him for us… If only they were all that good.”
Luckily, I suppose? Captain Elmer Ahrens, recommended by an acquaintance, is a decent officer. Once he’s trained, he’ll be plenty good.
But he’s the best one.
Having to feel relieved that at least one of them is even usable is a horrifying state of affairs.
“That Captain Rolf Meybert in the artillery should just be shot.”
“Colonel…”
“I know; we don’t need to go over it again. Still…I can’t believe I have an inept worker manning the artillery. Who knows how much ammo he’ll use up? This is the east, you know!”
The Imperial Army’s artillery doctrine has specialized in and been optimized for trench warfare. Armies always carry their past battles with them. Apparently, in order to optimize for a new battlefield, you have to pay the terrifying lesson fee of experience.
Having your head filled with the assumptions of old battlefields during training with the theorists…might still fly in the west. But… Tanya vents in a thoroughly fed-up voice. “Throw away the experience you got on the Rhine front! The supply lines we’re premised on are too different.”
“Yes, Colonel… Our supplies are vulnerable, aren’t they…?”
“It’s worse than that, Major Weiss. I’m sure you’re painfully aware, too. I can’t have anyone wasting shells. Our supply could be cut off tomorrow for all we know!”
The eastern front’s supply runs through the mud. Horses are the primary means of transportation. Trucks can just barely be used to supplement, but the road isn’t paved.
The conditions are just too different from the western lines, where we were abundantly supplied with shells via light rail. Supplies are not a given here. To put it in extremes, we can’t even trust that the communication lines will stay up.
“Major Weiss, do you remember the nonsense Meybert said the third time you severed their supply lines during the map exercise?”
“You mean, ‘The ammo stockpile we started with was unrealistically small, which is hampering the artillery’s performance’?”
/> Weiss wrung the words out in disgust. He and Captain Meybert had been repeating the same scenario for educational purposes.
And yet. Tanya spits. “That idiot Meybert just doesn’t learn. No, he just says, ‘That’s weird.’ Thanks to which he’s going to be a bad influence on the other numbskulls.”
“Captain Lienhart Thon and Lieutenant Klaus Tospan will be fine. Those two are infantry, so they can handle any trouble on their own.”
Was he trying to distract us? Or trying to find some point in their defense?
Tanya can understand that he’s attempting a roundabout topic change. Even so, she’s of the opinion that there are some problems to point out. “Thon and Tospan are both blockheads. They think they can handle things, but they’re newbies who might as well not even know how to change a diaper.”
Weiss, silently wincing, probably doesn’t have any response to that. But he is starting to look worried.
Ah, I do somewhat regret that. Tanya realizes then that she was getting too emotional.
“I wanted to ask about the replacement company sent for the aerial mage battalion.” Tanya steers the conversation back toward administrative matters and asks Weiss’s opinion.
“It’s a full twelve mages led by First Lieutenant Theobald Wüstemann, all new.”
“That’s what I heard. So give me your frank opinion of both the commander and the unit.”
“They’re on the better side of both ability and quality.”
Oh? His remark surprises Tanya. The replacements Weiss received from the home country had been abysmally lacking in mobility skills. “So better than expected? Fill me in.”
“Yes, I think Personnel must have been somewhat selective when choosing them for us. They’re doing just fine in terms of eagerness and book learning.”
Tanya urges him to continue, and he sighs.
“On the other hand, as mages, they have a critical dearth of experience.”
“So that’s what’s wrong with them.”
The truth we can only lament…
Regardless of how high quality they are, these newbies haven’t been given any time to gain experience. Inevitably, then, they don’t have enough.